Preparing for exams is an essential part of any learning process. If you are a student, get ready to pass countless exams and tests before you become a happy graduate. But how can you make the process easier? In this post, you will find some life hacks shared by professionals and experienced students.
Cope With Other Academic Assignments
Most students are overloaded with numerous academic assignments they need to complete within the shortest terms. If you need to compose an essay, write a report, or design a presentation in the hot period before the exams, you are at risk of failing both tasks. The reason is that spending time completing an academic assignment will make you feel nervous about the exams. As a result, you will likely be unproductive and stressed.
In this case, many learners are looking for a question, “Who can write my paper for me?” Fortunately, there are some professional online services that are ready to help you cope with even the most challenging assignments. You can either get expert help or complete your academic tasks by yourself – anyway, make sure to do all the jobs far before the exams.
Have Enough Sleep
Having enough healthy sleep is crucial when preparing for exams. The reason is your brain should have a long pause from constant learning while your nervous system needs some rest. If you sleep well (at least eight hours per week), you can benefit from a productivity boost. Consequently, you will have a chance to remember all the necessary facts and data faster and easier.
According to recent research, students who lack sleep when preparing for exams have lower grades than their well-sleeping fellows. Furthermore, they experience high levels of anxiety before the tests. If you would like to remain effective when learning, remember to have 7-8 hours of sleep per day.
Make Preparing A Regular Routine
The most common mistake of many students is trying to prepare for tests a couple of days before day X. However, this time might not be enough to get excellent results. If you plan to have a good academic performance and pass all the tests successfully, make sure to start preparing far in advance.
The best advice is to start learning at least a couple of weeks beforehand. Furthermore, it will be a good idea to make learning your daily routine. For example, you can spend for preparing for exams two or three hours per day. You can split your learning hours into two or three periods but still dedicate enough time for learning on a regular basis. Most professors and students believe this is the least stressful way to get ready for exams.
Create an Individual Learning Schedule
Some students prefer learning in the mornings, while others usually experience a productivity boost in the evenings. You need to choose the best time for preparing for exams and compose a personal learning schedule accordingly.
It is also important to note that different students have different learning peculiarities. For example, some learners remember information better if they read books or watch videos, while other bright minds absorb and memorize the facts more effectively if they listen or discuss them. Therefore, make sure to select the most fitting learning methods according to your specific features and preferences.
Most teachers recommend starting learning from the easiest topics you feel confident in. This method is undoubtedly effective – after you learn some easy questions, switching to more complicated ones will likely turn out to be smoother.
Move Forward When Feeling Stuck
Some students dedicate too much time to the tricky questions they have to prepare for exams. What does it mean? It means they are trying to find the answers to the challenging questions for too long and fail to have enough energy to cope with the easy ones. So, what is the best advice in this case?
If you feel totally lost in a particular field, it is better to leave it for the last. Make sure to learn all the needed questions, find all the crucial answers, and then return to the most difficult field. This approach will help you feel less stressed and have enough time to clarify the issue.
Stop Drinking Too Much Caffeine and Energetics
A cup of coffee often helps learners to feel more vigor and get rid of sleepiness when preparing for exams. The same rule works for energetic beverages. However, both types of drinks can be dangerous for your health (if you get too carried away)
The fact is that drinking too much caffeine drinks and energetic overstimulates your nervous system. Moreover, both of them might significantly increase your heart rate and blood pressure. If you drink a couple of cups of coffee per day, these conditions might be okay for your body. However, consuming over three cups of coffee or a few energetics each day might damage your health. Not only will you experience a productivity drop, but you will also need to take prescribed medication.
Avoid Overloads
Many students combine learning and working. However, preparing for exams is not the best time to have more jobs to do. If you are employed part-time, you might still have enough energy for learning. However, full-time employment and learning will likely make you feel exhausted. In many cases, this health condition leads to low productivity and can make you fail to pass the tests.
Not to mention, the “avoid overloads” rule works not only for working. Professional sportsmen should also decrease the number of training and exercises when preparing for exams. If you are a volunteer or a beginner entrepreneur, it is also necessary to focus on learning rather than other activities.
Limit Online Communication and Social Media
From the list above, this advice is often the most difficult to follow. The fact is that most learners spend at least several hours on online communication per day. In other words, social media and messengers are the biggest time eaters for most teenagers. But how can you stop scrolling the newsfeed each spare minute? What if you often get distracted by mobile notifications?
Unfortunately, it is usually too difficult to cope with this dependency by yourself. The good news is that there are some applications that will help you stop being distracted for a particular period of time. For example, there are some tools that will block your social media and messengers for an hour or two (it’s up to you to decide the time you require blocking). Many learners use these utilities to improve learning.
All in all, preparing for tests is not a matter of a day or two. It is necessary to start learning far in advance, have enough sleep, avoid overloads, and develop an individual learning schedule to pass all the exams successfully.